About 100 free outdoor performances will take place at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, which runs from May 7 through Oct. 29 at several sites in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena neighborhood.
Kitka, specializing in Eastern European women’s music, presents “Songs for Ukraine” with special guest Ukrainian vocalist Mariana Sadovska on Thursday, May 19.
“It is emotionally fulfilling to see the best of the Bay Area arts and to be in the community,” Lucera says of the appeal of the festival for attendees, who include people from all over the Bay Area as well as those who live and work in the Yerba Buena community. Lunchtime and a few evening concerts take place on Thursdays and Saturdays at the Yerba Buena Gardens Esplanade. Salsa at Jessie, an open-air evening salsa dance party, occurs in Jessie Square on the third Thursday of every month. The Children’s Garden Series happens on Fridays in the Yerba Buena Children’s Garden. Poetic Tuesdays, on the second Tuesday afternoon of every month, features poets and musicians in Jessie Square.
“On June 18, everyone will be dancing in the gardens, “ Lucero says, referencing Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu, the local Hawaiian dance group led by hula master Patrick Makuakane. Lucero describes the company as a “big troupe with a dance school, a group really made for the gardens.” The satirical, locally treasured San Francisco Mime Troupe, which dates back to the civil rights era, and which shifted to radio plays during the pandemic, provides two hours of outdoor theater on July 16.